You Can’t Watch Hulu With Hotspot Shield

One of the really annoying things that Google does is that it often places importance on information with a lot of comments, and posts that have ‘authority’. Often, this authority is established over time. For us, this means that we get outdated information in search results.

The truth is that there was a short period of time where this was possible. You could actually get past Hulu’s firewall by changing your IP with Hotspot Shield. HSS is often called a proxy, but as far as I know, it’s actually a VPN service. Maybe they’ve changed since their inception, but it’s also possible that most users don’t know the difference between a proxy and a VPN.

Either way, it is possible to change your IP with Hotspot Shield. It’s also possible to unblock some websites with it. You can also surf privately, and for free with their basic VPN service.

But Hulu was quick to catch on that users outside the USA could connect to HSS for free, then access Hulu’s content database for free. I’m sure this has to do with content rights or advertising costs, but either way, they blocked Hotspot Shield shortly after bloggers jumped on the bandwagon and everyone and their brother started connecting to Hulu outside the USA.

Now everyone is saying the proxies don’t work anymore.

This is only half true.

Proxies don’t work. That’s the true part. These are constructed differently than VPNs, and basically are a completely different kind of thing.

VPNs still work. Most people don’t know what VPNs are, how they work, or how they’re different than proxies. Heck, they couldn’t even figure out that HSS was a VPN.

So if HSS isn’t a proxy, why doesn’t it work?

Well, while VPNs do work, Hulu is currently blocking KNOWN shared IP addresses. The IPs you get from proxies and VPNs are known as ‘shared IPs’ because multiple users can access them.

HSS obviously has lots of known IPs. It’s a free service, right? Why should they be so worried to update their IPs with fresh, unadulterated, private IPs. I have no doubt in my mind that upgrading to Hotspot Shield’s paid service could get you past Hulu’s firewalls.

But HSS isn’t even that good of a VPN service. It’s a bit dated in my opinions. There are many other, better, faster, and more reliable options. Choose a VPN service based on your location (see the side bar), or click a link below to read some reviews.

My name is Roderick, and this is my website. Here at Mr. VPN I blog about internet privacy, online movie/TV streaming, and review VPN services. Sometimes I write about traveling & tech-related travel gear.